Concord, Mass.
1912
September
&
October
(No 2)

Ring-necked Pheasants.

directly in front of it on the stone wall almost under my
chamber window they seldom permitted a man who had once
attracted their attention to approach nearer than one hundred yards 
when they would elude him by either flying or running very
swiftly into the nearest cover. They seemed indeed to be 
not less alert & wary than Black Ducks & to have equally
keen senses of sight & hearing. Thus while I saw them
daily & sometimes hourly I rarely got a fair shot at one
unless, perchance, by stumbling on some bird that was
skulking in long grass or dense bushes & even in such places it
was unusual to have such an experience. Most of them spent
the midday hours in thickets bordering or intersecting the fields.
In windy or rainy weather they resorted freely to dense
woods where among tall, crowded pines or oaks they might
be seen or heard far back from any open ground & when
I not infrequently flushed them with or near Ruffed Grouse.